“Bristol are a hard team who play pos­i­tive football, but like all the teams in the world they have some weak points. We were 100 per cent per­fect.

“We pressed Bristol when we needed to and when we had the chance to at­tack, we at­tacked.

“We played very pos­i­tive football and we re­spected the op­po­nents and played very hard to stop their strong points.”

As for City, their first game back in the Cham­pi­onship ended in de­feat but Steve Cot­ter­ill was de­fi­ant over his team’s show­ing.

The Robins boss said: “Wed­nes­day played counter-at­tack­ing football at home and we’ve got done on the counter for their sec­ond goal.

“It wasn’t a tough baptism when you think of the over­all 90 min­utes.

“The first goal from the set-play is our fault; if you don’t get tight in the box then you’re liv­ing on a knife-edge.

“Our football was ev­ery bit as good as theirs to­day, if not bet­ter.

“They’re al­right, but when you look at it to­day it was a game that we dom­i­nated with re­gards to pos­ses­sion.”

Wed­nes­day had en­dured a sum­mer of change, with Car­val­hal bring­ing in 11 new play­ers while City had kept faith with the ma­jor­ity of their League Onewin­ning team from the pre­vi­ous term.

The open­ing 20 min­utes were cagey although that was prob­a­bly to be ex­pected, given there were seven debu­tants on dis­play, but it soon sprang into life with both sides step­ping up a gear.

Luke Free­man went close for City with a daisy-cut­ter be­fore Wed­nes­day duo At­dhe Nuhiu and Marco Ma­tias both mishit ef­forts when well-placed.

Aaron Wil­bra­ham then forced a straight­for­ward save from home stop­per Keiren West­wood be­fore Ma­tias went clos­est of all when he beat Frank Field­ing but saw his shot slither past the right-hand post.

Alex Lopez then blasted over for Wed­nes­day, as did vis­it­ing striker Jonathan Kod­jia just be­fore the break.

Af­ter the in­ter­val, Wed­nes­day’s winger Ross Wal­lace stung Field­ing’s fin­ger­tips with a long-range free-kick as Wed­nes­day upped the ante in search of the opener.

And that opener duly ar­rived right on the hour mark, when cen­tre-half Lees pow­ered a header home from a cor­ner that proved too hot for Field­ing to han­dle.

City sub­sti­tute Wes Burns then saw a header cleared off the line by McGu­gan be­fore the same player sprinted up the other end to dou­ble the hosts’ lead.

In clas­sic break­away style left-back Jeremy He­lan surged for­ward and found Wal­lace on the left.

The Scot then put in a deep cross which was glee­fully slot­ted home at the back-post by McGu­gan, who had dashed the full length of the pitch.